“Yeah, we do that.” Most electronic contract manufacturers (CM’s) have designed their businesses to say this, regardless of the need. Visit virtually any CM’s website or talk to their salespeople. You will likely encounter:

I know. Like a woman in her first trimester of pregnancy it makes some folks uncomfortable to publicize good news too early. But there comes a time when recognition is not just appropriate, it’s overdue. I believe we have reached that time now.

Probing the Soil

We record the calls that come in through our website’s toll-free number so that we know we are handling them properly. Occasionally a call comes in that gets the CEO’s attention…

Recently, my wife and I joined 14 others from our church on a mission trip to Guatemala. While there were many uplifting spiritual rewards for both the givers and receivers of this grace, in this post I’d like to share several key business lessons that emerged as well.

If you missed either of the two earlier parts of this series, check them out here:

In Part 1 of this series, you heard about the importance of building a deep bullpen consisting of the right pitchers for your particular needs. You can see that each ballgame will require your starter and your reliever coming in at different times to handle the lineup you’re facing. So… now it’s time to figure out the bullpen of pitchers you’ll bring to the game.

If you don’t continue to buy from us, bad things will happen. That’s what your current electronic assembly provider hopes you are thinking.

You’re an OEM who has developed a solid supplier relationship with an electronics job shop, whether they are local or across the country. The shop has proven themselves to be reliable, responsive, and cost competitive, especially in small batches (the work that many of the larger batch CM’s often avoid). You are happy with your job shop’s performance and want to award them more work. What will you do? Let’s explore a few options.